


A Red Wedding That Isn't Heartwrenching

by IAmWhelmed



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, wedding fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 11:56:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6373807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmWhelmed/pseuds/IAmWhelmed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She guessed she must have been nervous. She’d heard a lot about that sort of thing happening the weeks and months she’d spent watching bridal reality shows. What mattered was that, underneath all of the sweat and butterflies, her heart was leaping. She felt anticipation tensing in her muscles, swirling in the pits of her stomach and swelling all the way to her lungs. Her sides burned to have him hold her, as cheesy as that sounded. It’d been too long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Red Wedding That Isn't Heartwrenching

She didn’t much enjoy the veil in her face, but it was a small price to pay for the day.

The ceremony was small. They didn’t want anything too big. They’d never been the kind of people to want a lot of attention. She stood on the other side of the front door of the dojo, sweating her sticky bra off underneath her dress. She guessed she must have been nervous. She’d heard a lot about that sort of thing happening the weeks and months she’d spent watching bridal reality shows. What mattered was that, underneath all of the sweat and butterflies, her heart was leaping. She felt anticipation tensing in her muscles, swirling in the pits of her stomach and swelling all the way to her lungs. Her sides burned to have him hold her, as cheesy as that sounded. It’d been too long. Spender had been insistent that they follow tradition, and tradition meant “he can’t see you for twenty-four hours”. She held her bouquet in one hand, running the other along her arm to sate the emotion she felt. It wasn’t the same as feeling him hold her, but it would do for the next few minutes.

“Isabel...” Whatever Spender whispered, she didn’t hear. She was too focused on feeling her smile grow the more she thought about reaching the end of the aisle. He continued on with a speech of some sort. It was probably advice about what her life would be like from then on, at least in his experience. She heard tidbits here and there, soaking in the exhilaration wriggling up her spine. What she did hear him say, when she came back to reality, was what mattered. “I’m so proud of you.”

She wrapped her arm around his, squeezing his hand where their fingers intertwined. Even after twelve years he had four inches on her. Standing beside him in her heels, she found that she was head-to-head with him, an equal. Perhaps he’d seen her that way for a while. She didn’t much care if he did. He was Mister Spender to her- always. “Thank you.” She couldn’t smile much wider than she already was, but she tried anyway, just to show him that she meant it.

She wanted to thank him for everything. He made mistakes, just as any man would have, but every mistake was paved with good intentions. Standing there beside him, one foot out the door to a new stage of life, it all hit her at once. The man beside her wasn’t just standing in as her father- he practically was. He was there for her first steps, when she finally decided to start walking. He was there to be embarrassed when her first words were “shiny eyes”, shortly before she reached out and snatched a few strands of his hair in her quest to touch his glasses. He was the one she went to the first time somebody asked her out- Jeff, actually, age ten. She never really gave him a chance but, seeing where she was now, she didn’t think she’d been meant to. Spender sat her down that day and told her that she was a beautiful girl and that she would have to learn to be gentle when saying ‘no’ so as to not hurt Jeff’s feelings, because he was sure it would happen a lot- guys asking her out. Well it did, when she hit high school anyway.

Of course it bothered her that her real father wasn’t there, but even if he had been she didn’t think he would have been fit to hand her off. Spender returned her smile with a teary one, dabbing at the curves of his glasses with a handkerchief he kept tucked in the pocket of his tux.

It was when the music started playing that the rest of it became real. Isaac stood ahead of Isabel, directing the bridesmaids to begin walking down the aisle on the arms of the groomsmen. Violet and Cody went first, Cody picking at Violet’s hair while she struggled to straighten Cody’s tie.

“You had such beautiful hair this afternoon. How do you get it this messed up?”

“Didn’t the wedding planner himself fix your tie, like, twelve minutes ago? What did you do?”

Lisa and Jeff were up next. Jeff was positively sweating under his tux, tugging at the collar as much as he could without loosening his tie. Lisa reached over and fanned him with her hand, snickering at him as they exchanged a brief conversation Isabel could hardly hear.

“Told you so.”

“S-Sorry!”

After them, Suzy and Collin went. Isabel nearly choked on the immediate laughter that came with seeing Suzy’s hair, which had once been in a neat bun, completely disheveled. As a news reporter, Suzy’s world was run by three things- the news, her image, and Collin. As much as Suzy adored working and adored the pros that came with being a beautiful blonde on television, she always found a way to make time for her man.

 _Pffft, might have made a little more than time with him just now._ Collin helped Suzy tease her hair so the mess looked purposeful while she fixed his dress shirt, tucking the half of it that’d come undone back. “Why did I let you convince me to do this?”  
He blanched, eyes wide and face as bright as the rose on his jacket. “What?! You’re the one who convinced me to-!” Collin exhaled heavily and cupped Suzy’s cheeks in his hands, placing a gentle kiss to her forehead instead of exploding like he would have done a decade or so ago. The guy was a distinguished therapist, after all. Only a man of the mind could handle falling for a woman like Suzy. Isabel commended him for that whenever she had the chance, much to Suzy’s chagrin. “I love you, and I promise we’ll be next.” Suzy’s busy journalist appearance broke, leaving her a love-struck woman in the arms of the man she might not have always known she’d end up with.  
“I hope so. After all, I’m the one who’s catching the bouquet.”  
Something churned in Isabel’s chest, not necessarily jealousy, but a longing to be like them. She wanted to hurry up and get the whole “walk the bride down the aisle” part over with. That stupid “the groom can’t see the bride in her dress” shtick was getting a little old, and quite frankly she just wanted to hold his hands in her own again. Suzy was laughing when Collin escorted her down the aisle, Isaac’s aura coming off him in sparks as he shoved the two down the pathway. “There are people behind you guys, get down there!” His hands dropped to his sides, a loud ‘smack’ where skin and tux pants collided. “Where are my Best Man and Maid of Honor?”  
“Isaac, chill.”  
Isabel slapped the medium’s arm with her bouquet, just hard enough to shake him down to planet Earth and easy enough to not ruin the flowers. He looked at her with wide eyes, face coloring as he rubbed along his arm where she’d smacked him. “I’m getting married; this is already the best day of my life. Don’t stress over everything being perfect.”  
“I’m sorry, Isabel. You just know I hate it when he runs late like this! He does it all the freaking time!”  
Spender tussled Isaac’s hair with his free hand, offering a few words of encouragement about deep breathes and ‘letting go of controlling everything’, probably not meaning to be sarcastic even if it sounded like it. Isaac smacked his hand away, but Isabel could still make out the beginnings of a smile tugging at his lips.  
From the front door, there was a loud ‘bang’, accompanied by hissed scolding and frantic apologies. Max bent over, hands on his knees as he inhaled and exhaled. Zarei wasn’t far behind him, glaring knives and swords into his back. As the Maid of Honor, she was already more than prepared to go down the aisle. Isabel raised an eyebrow, to which Zarei rolled her eyes and shrugged the question off. Isaac hurried over and forced Max to straighten out, pulling on the shoulders of his tux in a sad attempt to rid the Best Man of his wrinkles. “Where the hell have you been?”  
“Funny story, actually. I got crazy drunk with some friends last night, got a pet monkey, and my friend got this crazy face tattoo. Seriously, it took up half his face and it was this huge deal. Anyway, we apparently got messed up in this really bad drug deal and-”  
Isaac crossed his arms. “How long do I have to sit here and listen to you recite the plot of Hangover 2 to me?”  
Max winced and shrugged. “Until you forgive me for oversleeping?”  
“Max, it is four in the afternoon!”  
“Isaac, it is Saturday and I am a night owl.”  
Isaac groaned and shoved Max down the pathway by the shoulder. “Zarei, he’s your problem now.”  
Max sheepishly offered Zarei his arm, mouthing what was probably a not-so-smooth apology to Isabel. With a parting wave, the two were off down the aisle and disappearing out the doors of the dojo.  
Isabel took a deep breath then released it, letting the tension in her body slip out of her lungs and fall from her painted lips. “Are you ready?”  
Spender chuckled. “No, but I’m never going to be, so let’s go.”

The yard was filled with white chairs decked in red ribbons along the backs. The men and women they’d come to know, be it from the spectral world or the regular one, stood and watched her as Spender walked her down a carpet of red roses. Among the crowd were a few peers from the dojo she’d grown up fighting, and some people were highly-renowned spectrals with high clearance in the activity consortium. Dimitri stood somewhere in the middle of one of the rows, silently teasing Suzy and Collin with numerous kissy faces and discrete impolite hand gestures. She giggled to herself, that elation in her chest swelling every time she gazed at the eyes of a family member or friend. The red streamers that decorated the trees and the roof fell just low enough to graze her veil, the scent of her grandfather’s cologne filling her nose. For a moment she was surprised. He helped decorate?  
She glanced to where Grandpa Guerra was seated, at the front of the bride’s row with his arms crossed proudly across his chest. For the first time since she was a child young enough to be carried in one of his arms, she saw him smiling. It reached his eyes, and for a moment she remembered a time that he always looked like that when he saw her. For a minute she wanted to cry and tell him how happy she was that he was finally looking at her like that again- like she was his granddaughter and not just his prodigy. She might have actually done just that, if she didn’t have her heart set on reaching the end of that aisle. She settled for blowing him a kiss, to which his grin broke even wider.  
As they reached the end of the aisle and Spender parted from her with a kiss to the cheek, she pulled him back down for a hug. He wasn’t expecting it, flailing for a few seconds before settling into her embrace. Isabel swallowed the lump forming in her throat the best she could. “There’s nobody in this world I would rather call my father. Thank you so much. For everything.” Spender’s arms tightened around her, one of his hands rubbing her shoulders where she’d been so tense before. The two parted with a squeeze to his shoulder, and Isabel took her place at the altar.  
“So, am I getting five bucks at the end of this?”  
“Isaac wasn’t as horrible as you bet he would be, no. You did, however, earn three bucks for betting that Max would be late.”  
She could hear Ed laughing under his breath, careful not to disturb the rest of the ceremony as the priest began the usual marriage spiel. “Hey, beautiful” he reached out and took her hands, running his thumb along the backs. It hovered near her engagement ring, lingering at the bottom of her finger and rubbing circles into the rest of the hand. He must have been remembering proposing to her, something she often did when she caught sight of the small diamond on her hand.  
They hadn’t even been dating for a year at the time, but that wasn’t counting the seven or so years that they pined for each-other, falling deeper and deeper into each-other every single time they tried to find a place with someone else. She remembered it being their six-month anniversary, actually, when she found the ring tucked inconspicuously in the glove compartment of the passenger seat. She’d been looking for a paper towel to wipe down her spilled coke, eager to get the cold ice out of her sopping lap. Ed had been apologizing profusely for driving so fast over the speed bump, not having been in that area before. He just knew that there was a hill with a beautiful view around that he wanted to show her over some burgers and fries, which she was cool with. It didn’t occur to either of them that there was a ring in that compartment filled with napkins when she was reaching for some. She still remembered the look on Ed’s face when the ring came tumbling onto the passenger seat floor- his cheeks were pale and his mouth opened and closed with only the sounds of strangled air escaping. She’d picked the ring up and examined it thoroughly, both curious and silently thrilled.  
“Ed, what’s this?”  
“Um, costume jewelry?”  
“Why do you have a fake engagement ring in your glove compartment?”  
He proceeded to spout a million lies about a play that Max’s sister was in and that he was just helping them out by picking her up after rehearsal and that the ring wasn’t real- but then she put it on and he went quiet. Isabel remembered watching the way it shined against the moon’s reflection, glistening every way she moved it. The light seemed to follow it, like a limelight that was trying to tell her it belonged on that finger. She’d been in love with it instantly. “You know,” Ed spoke up after a long pause “I’m supposed to get down on one knee, first. Actually, I think I’m supposed to put it on your finger.”  
She’d glanced at him, unsure what to say. “Yes” was the word that came to mind, and she tried really hard to get the word out, but he continued before she said anything. “Unless you want to propose to me, which I hear is a thing that’s happening more and more. Progress, ya know?”  
She’d never kissed him like that before, bursting with joy and excitement and pure unadulterated love for him. She didn’t even say “yes”. He just kind of assumed that’s what she meant when she attacked his lips.  
“Izzy? You get lost somewhere?”  
Ed was whispering to her, squeezing her hands and bending toward her, even though he probably shouldn’t have been. The priest carried on reading, as though he didn’t notice the bride and groom whispering while he spoke. It felt like preschool again, talking low so the teacher couldn’t hear, except way better because she actually wanted to be there. She glanced up from their hands, looking toward his face. He seemed worried, from what she could tell behind her veil. After all, his future wife wasn’t responding to him. He’d probably been trying to get her attention for a while. “Are you…?” Part of her was overjoyed that he was worried she might call off the wedding; it meant that he still wanted to love her and be with her the rest of his life, that nothing happened in the day they were apart to make him change his mind. The other part of her felt awful because she knew she had absolutely no plans of walking down that aisle without him.  
She squeezed his hands even tighter, leaning closer.  
“Yes.”  
Ed smiled, eyebrows furrowing. “Yes, what?”  
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”  
He glanced around, as though he was checking to make sure that they were actually at the altar- getting married. “I uh, yeah. I mean, I got that from you dragging me to cake tastes and wearing a wedding dress. That’s what that means, right?” His shoulders shook the more he tried to hide his nervous laughter, but she stood straighter and squeezed his hands again, firmer than before.  
“I love you, and I want to marry you. I never said that before, but I’m saying it now.”  
Ed’s eyes widened behind his glasses, presumably in realization.  
“Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”  
He pulled Isabel forward, not quite flush against him but pretty close. She stumbled over her heels, but leveled out with little issue. His smile was soft when his eyes found hers, as soft as the night he slipped the ring off her finger and slipped it back on with a kiss to the back of her hand. His cheeks lit up in that adorable way she loved, light pink dusting his ears and his nose. “I do.”  
“Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”  
They’d taken a long journey to stand there together. They’d already been through sickness and health, day after day. She’d seen him at his worst, locked in his room with piles of completed video games and bags of stale chips all over the floor. She’d seen him at his best, swinging her around because he got a call from a buyer that adored his artwork, cheeky grin so wide she could see all his teeth. He’d seen her at her worst, curled up under a huge ball of covers and pillows because she felt like she wasn’t good enough to be a prodigy. He’d seen her at her best, reveling in the defeat of one of the biggest threats Mayview had ever faced, his arms around her as they cried about how happy they were for a good thirty minutes. Ed was a constant in her life; her first love, her best friend, her confidant. Now, he would be her husband, too. “I do.”  
“You may now kiss the bride.”  
Feeling Ed lift the veil off of her head was relieving, not just because it was scratchy and uncomfortable against her face, but because she could see him clearly for the first time in what felt like a week. There were no more traditions keeping her from seeing him, and no more walls of luxurious primping apart from each-other. There was no more waiting. Ed’s face lit up, as red as she’d ever seen him. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet at the part we’ve actually had months of practice doing?” She teased him; she couldn’t help it. She adored him when he was shy. It reminded her of simpler times, when they were growing up together, before stuff got complicated and they had to fight for their right to live in Mayview- a time before their bond was forged in fire.  
“Never,” he murmured “I’m just thinking that I’m going to love getting that garter off.” Isabel felt her face heat up, too, and she laughed with every playful punch she laid into his chest. Ed wrapped an arm around her waist, twisted around and dipped her over. She squealed and clutched his neck in her hands, pulling on the fabric of his tux. Ed ‘growled seductively’ (it was too cheesy to call it hot) and kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> Max caught the bouquet, by the way. He got completely trampled by the bridesmaids and Isaac wouldn't let him forget it for the rest of the day.


End file.
